At the Delhi Rape Court, a Media Scrum

The court complex where the six men accused of raping and murdering a student are facing trial, New Delhi, Jan. 3.

UPDATE: The WSJ reported at about 5:45 p.m. that charges, including murder and gang-rape, had been formally filed against five accused. A sixth suspect faces trial in a juvenile court.

At the court complex where the six men accused of raping and murdering a New Delhi physiotherapy student last month are facing trial, there was perhaps a predictable scrum of lawyers and journalists Thursday afternoon.

A magistrate asked all reporters to leave the courtroom when lawyers in other cases complained the journalists were taking up all the space in the public gallery.

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“You will be informed when the charge-sheet is filed,” the judge said. “This is a public court,” a local journalist retorted to a policeman in the courtroom.

In addition to the reporters in the courtroom, there was a huge crowd of foreign and local journalists outside courtroom no. 207 on the second floor of the Saket district court complex in south Delhi.

It is just a few hundred meters from the shopping mall where the 23-year-old student and a male friend watched “The Life of Pi” on Dec. 16 before being picked up by a private bus that contained the six accused. They allegedly beat and raped the young woman and beat the young man. They have been in custody since then and could not be reached for comment.

Lawyers who regularly practice in the Saket court complex say the magistrate will simply accept the charge-sheet when an investigating police officer from Delhi police brings it before her. Then she will forward it to the sessions judge at the special fast-track court in the complex which will take up the case for day-to-day hearings.

Beyond this, there won’t be much activity in the court on this case Thursday, lawyers familiar with the procedure say. It’s not known whether the accused will also be produced at the time of the filing of the charge-sheet, which is expected to be hundreds of pages long.

No camera crews are allowed inside the court complex. Broadcast vans are parked outside the main gates.

After being moved out of the courtroom, journalists moved back in. It was chaotic with reporters and lawyers jostling for space. By this point, the magistrate had left the court. But just a few minutes later, the press crew was moved back out again to stand in an open space between two courtrooms.

“It will be filed after an hour,” a police constable said of the charge-sheet.

More than one hour later, after 4 p.m., the charge-sheet had not been filed and confusion continued in the courtroom.

The court usually closes at 5 p.m., after which after-hours proceedings take place in the courtroom of a “duty magistrate” on the same floor of the court complex, lawyers say.

Lawyers practicing at the Saket district court have refused to provide legal representation to any of the six accused in the case. When asked whether it was against the professional norms of legal practice, one lawyer said: “It is, but we also have a moral duty to collectively stand against a heinous crime like this.” If no defense attorney steps forward, the court has the power to appoint legal representatives for the accused.

At close to 5 p.m., anger started to mount among about 100 female legal activists inside and outside courtroom no. 207. The activists are from a Delhi-based women’s rights group called Pragatisheel Mahila Sangathan. “We have been told since last week that police will file the charge-sheet today,” Poonam Kaushik, general secretary of the group said, while her colleagues prepared a press release to send to journalists. “Even after waiting for an entire day, it hasn’t been filed while the entire nation is eagerly waiting for the trial to begin,” said Ms. Kaushik. “This is the continuation of the insensitivity of the government and the Delhi police.”

“It’s a harrowing experience in all type of cases in the court,” Ms. Kaushik added. “You wait all day for a case and most of the time there is no specific information on when your case will be heard. That’s why nobody wants to come to courts in India.”

A Delhi police spokesman declined comment.

A court official said around 5:25 p.m. that the regular judge had left and asked lawyers and journalists to go to the court of the “duty magistrate.” He said it’s not known whether the charge-sheet will be filed Thursday.

“The government was supposed to show an example with this case,” a furious Ms. Kaushik said. “But it’s continuing to do a hoax with the nation.”

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